Carpenter-Ants. 307 



"A third kind we found nested in the root of a plant, 

 which grows on the bark of trees in the manner of mistletoe, 

 and which they had perforated for that use. This root is 

 commonly as big as a large turnip, and sometimes much 

 bigger. When we cut it we found it intersected by innu- 

 merable winding passages, all filled with these animals, by 

 which, however, the vegetation of the plant did not appear to 

 have suffered any injury. We never cut one of these roots 

 that was not inhabited, though some were not bigger than a 

 hazel-nut. The animals themselves are very small, not more 

 than half as big as the common red ant in England. They 

 had stings, but scarcely force enough to make them felt : 

 they had, however, a power of tormenting us in an equal, if 

 not in a greater degree ; for the moment we handled the 

 root, they swarmed from innumerable holes, and running 

 about those parts of the body that were uncovered, produced 

 a titillation more intolerable than pain, except it is increased 

 to great violence."* 



The species called sugar-ants in the West Indies are 

 particularly destructive to the sugar-cane, as well as to lime, 

 lemon, and orange-trees, by excavating their nests at the 

 roots, and so loosening the earth that they are frequently 

 uprooted and blown down by the winds. If this does not 

 happen, the roots are deprived of due nourishment, and the 

 plants become sickly and die.f 



[One or two examples of foreign ants are well worthy of 

 notice. The first of them is an insect whose habits bear 

 strongly upon the familiar passage in Proverbs, ch. vi. v. 6 : 



" Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; consider her ways, and be wise : 



" Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 



" Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." 



This passage is one that has been often mentioned as a 

 proof that the Bible is not to be implicitly trusted. Judging 

 from all the species of ants known to entomologists, some 

 writers argue that the author of the proverb in question 



* Hawkesworth's Account of Cook's First Voyage, 

 f Phil. Trans., xxx. p. 346. 



